Kindle Fire Rockets To 2nd Place In Tablet Wars

It’s no iPad ‘killer’, but when it comes to the number of units currently being shipped, Amazon’s Kindle Fire is certainly making an impression.

According to marketing research firm iSuppli, Amazon will ship 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets before the end of the year. That will make Amazon the second largest shipper of tablets during the fourth quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec, 2011), with a 13.8% share of all tablets being shipped worldwide. The 7 inch tablet became available for pre-ordering on September 28, but didn’t start being shipped until about two and half weeks ago.

Only Apple has more tablets being shipped… and they are shipping a lot more. iSuppli is estimating that Apple will ship 18.6 million tablets during the fourth quarter. That will give Apple a 65% share of all the tablets being shipped during this time period.

Samsung, bumped by Amazon from its number 2 spot, is now in 3rd place. Though Samsung shipped slightly more tablets than it did in the third quarter, from 1.2 million units to 1.4 million in the fourth quarter, they fell due to the dramatic rise in the number of tablets that both Apple and Amazon shipped.

Barnes & Noble fell from 3rd to 4th place, and HTC came in 5th.

Though the iPad is bigger, more powerful, and has more features, it appears that Amazon has hit a sweet spot by going after a different market – those that want a small entertainment tablet at a lower cost.

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Faroh Sauder has spent more than 30 years working as a journalist and educator. He has written on politics, international affairs, civil rights, and consumer education.Now mostly retired, Faroh continues to stay current on tech and consumer issues and reports on his interests here at News For Shoppers.